Tag Archives: tomatoes

I honestly don’t remember where in India I picked this recipe up, but it’s been a splash ever since. At some point I had adapted it by adding onions at the beginning of the process, but that’s mostly for the times when I’m cooking large quantities. Because, yes, tomatoes do take a while to cook thoroughly and boil away all that water. So take yourself some time to hang around in the kitchen until they’re done. You won’t have to guard the oven whatsoever, just be there to stir from time to time.

So the steps for making the chutney go like these:

chop your sweet tomatoes in quite small pieces (no need to stress that they’re even); keep all the juice in

chop your onions fine

select your spices: whole cardamon, cloves, cumin

finely slice a fair amount ofchillies

prepare other add-ons: raisins, ground cumin and honey

Now you’re ready to start. Deep fry the cardamon and cloves until they pop, but make sure they don’t get burned. Using a lid is a good idea, because they will literally jump out of your pot 🙂 Follow with the cumin seeds, chillies and immediately after, the onions. Mix well until translucent, add the raisins, salt, ground cumin and when you find that the composition runs out of water, you can fold in the all the tomatoes.

From now on all you have to do is wait that it turns from watery to creamy (with no lid on top) and occasionally stir. When it’s ready, let it cool and add honey until you reach that spicy sweet chutney taste.

Enjoy it with rice, turmeric potatoes or, why not, some sourdough bread! Quinoa with steamed veggies on the side is also an option.

Though autumn is here, I bet you can still find at the market one of those pulpy juicy tomatoes that delighted your taste buds all summer long. That’s plain easy, so don’t get frustrated if you won’t have the perfect ripe mangoes (always consider the Mediterranean for that!) You can of course try the canned ones, but pay attention they’re not totally soaked in sugar syrup.

So that’s basically the recipe for one of the best salads that you can have in a snap. Finely slice some red onions and red capsicums and add chilly flakes and olive oil to your own taste. I served it next to my favorite kind of rice, the very special Basil Rice <3

Introducing: favorite Indian dish cooked on European land! Because we cannot compare the flavors and the vibe of the food when here or there…each one is quite unique!

Nevertheless, I have to admit that the preparation of this one here turned out pretty authentic. Had I grated a real coconut, it would’ve been so much more Indian! But sometimes I get lazy when it comes to break open hard shells 🙂 So because the grated coconut I bought was an average one, I decided to mix it with a good coconut milk. That should work!

I won’t go through all the steps myself, as you already have it crystal clear in the recipe above. My only piece of advice is not to get stuck if one spice or another doesn’t come handy, just use the most common ones. What really makes the difference here is making your own masala, grinding and roasting it properly.

As such, I haven’t done the paste in a wet grinder, but added the spices & the grated coconut (roasted together) to the tomato-onion stir fry. Using more tomatoes ensured me with enough liquid for the time being. I then added the coconut milk along with the chickpeas and brought it to the boil once more.

Warning: the result it’s dangerously delicious!

(and the roasting pan for the masala will still release the flavor next time you use it :))

I sprinkled parsley instead of coriander leaves on top, and served it next to a summer salad made out of lettuce, cauliflower rice, red peppers and sunflower sprouts. Trust me, you’ll need even more leaves…

This salad came up after googling for a new dressing and feeling inspired by the apricot, ginger orange one. It turned out so deliciously orange that my hands unconsciously started weaving around the colors of the Sun: more orange, more red and yellow.

This is how I started peeling carrots and squash, adding some beautiful local tomatoes, cauliflower rice, red peppers and sweet corn. I balanced everything with fresh lettuce leaves and sprinkled sesame and hemp seeds.

If you want to save the looks of this salad, keep some carrot slices away from the dressing and add it right before serving (something that I haven’t done here 🙂 Same for the lettuce! Everything gets super juicy with the apricots

Is hard to hold back the temptation of posting one more Indian inspired recipe 🙂 Hope you’ll like it as much as I do! This time we have a salad, the traditional Raita which is basically a curd dish with cucumbers and tomatoes and sometimes a bit of sugar. Not this case :p

Initially I thought about making a simple tahini dressing that would soak the veggies, but then other little add-ons came in mind. And the most important one is the sweet smoked paprika flavor. So eventually I got to a recipe that looks like this:

There’s nothing more straightforward than beans – it’s filling, protein packed and extremely savory. The connaisseurs will tell you all of these at once, plus emphasizing the lusciousness of the rightly cooked dishes. The nutritionists will point out at the high levels of minerals, fiber and even antioxidants.

I have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan of the average white beans and most of the times I use to find it kind of heavy for digestion – in any case, heavier than lentils or chickpeas. However, discovering the red kidney beans and the black beans shaped my experience into a whole new thing. They both seem to absorb flavors really well and thus able to stand out with amazing cooked dishes and salads.

For now, I choose a popular Indian Rajma recipe, fairly easy to prepare and equally delicious, inspired from the Punjabi cuisine.

As with any beans, soaking for at least 8 hours is a must. If you have a pressure cooker, do use it now! It will turn your beans so soft and tender that you’ll completely leave behind the time consuming boiling method. Be aware that some of the beans will open up while cooking.

Now prepare the base: heat a bit of oil in a pan and saute (in this order) one bay leaf, cumin seeds, chopped onions, grated ginger & garlic and tomato puree (or simply cut in small cubes). Stir continuously until the water evaporates. You can choose to incorporate peppers (as I did) or carrots, but make sure that in the end they’ll turn out with the same smooth texture as the rest of the dish.

Before adding the rajma along with its water, sprinkle the powders (chilly, turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala – the hottest one you have) and mix well until all flavors come together, including salt.The water from the beans will absorb this beautiful gravy and render its distinctive flavor to the dish.

Not many veggies can give you such a crunchy watery experience as kohlrabi does. Because I really find it special, I’ve decided to build up to the fame of this rather unknown member of the cabbage family.

There are two ingredients that I love adding next to the kohlrabi and that is fresh mint and ground pepper. As simple as that! From now on you can start playing with colors and textures, choosing either an olive oil based dressing or a rich tahini cream to soak the entire thing. In the salad here I mixed carrots and purple cabbage while the white kohlrabi got turned into spaghetti for a more gourmet look.

Tomatoes are also something you can consider, but careful not making it too watery. Last touch was mixing all ingredients together with a superfluid tahini dressing in which I have already incorporated the ground pepper.

No wonder there’s so much talk around and about the nutritional benefits of broccoli. This greener sister of cauliflower is not only packed with vitamins A, C, K and folic acid but carries a great deal of minerals such as chromium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. Here you can find an exhaustive explanation of its amazing health benefits.

There’s one simple way in which you can enjoy the green crispiness of broccoli without cooking it over heat, and that’s by marinating it. You can think of accompanying it with mushrooms, either by marinating them all together in a bowl, or separately, in two bowls (due to their different consistencies, you might as well consider different marinating times). Both of the veggies should be cut in slices thin enough so that the liquid is able to permeate the pulp. If you fancy garlic or thyme, now it’s the right time to make them part of the marinade.

Oblivious of all, the broccoli will turn perfectly juicy over the night, yet crispy enough to be chewed. You can now add corn/peas, spring onions and dill and garnish it with anything from tomatoes to sesame or hemp seeds. This recipe is so easy that you can literally do it in the turning of a hand.

Zucchini is something you either love or hate. Some people may feel extremely queasy while others simply relish its rather flabby texture. When I say this, I refer to squash or zucchini tagliatelle because this is how you can make it resemble the traditional pasta. All you need is a peeler to peel off fine layers of squash until you get to the seeds.

The result should look like this

Now think of a nice sauce to accompany the so-called pasta.

You can play around with tahina, mustard and olive oil or simply try out one of the vegan mayonnaises. Another equally healthy alternative is a ketchup made out of tomatoes, olive oil, dates and salt.

Season it as you wish – garlic, basil, thyme, pepper, etc – and add some protein if needed – crushed walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds, previously soaked and strained.

Gather a few more vegetables that keep a firm texture (pepper, red cabbage, carrots, peas, spring onions or garlic) and there you have your pasta delight!

Adding the greens (dill, rucola, parsley, etc) or some sliced tomatoes at the very end will save them from getting completely mushed into the sauce.

All you have left to do now is slurp, slurp!

I prepared this dish so many times and each time it turns out a little bit different. Hope the pictures serve you well, but above all trust your imagination!

– use a high power blender or your immersion blender to get the right texture; it can take in plenty of liquid (the chickpeas water & lemon juice) but make sure it doesn’t turn too watery. i’ve discovered that adding red lentils (around a quarter of the whole quantity of chickpeas) will help a lot in achieving a soft fluffy hummus.

– depending on your taste, you can decide upon the quantity of each one; however, the main one is parsley and you should use it abundantly (especially because the citric acid contained in the pomegranate/lemon juice will half the initial quantity you started with)

– don’t add too much salt or you risk loosing the unique sweet & sour flavor of the salad

– alternatively, you can use buckwheat instead of bulgur. even cauliflower rice works out well, but then it’s something else than the original 🙂

– garnish it with pomegranate seeds or some nice olives

And if you don’t have bread – a good homemade bread or pita – try for once to have the hummus on spinach leaves. It could look like this 🙂

Or you can simply go for your favorite salad as a side dish

list of ingredients

1. hummus

chickpeas – soaked overnight and boiled until tender

tahina

olive oil

lemon juice

salt

optional:

cumin, garlic, zatar, sumac, nigella seeds

2. tabbouleh

parsley

tomatoes

(cucumber)

onion

bulgur / buckwheat

olive oil

lemon juice/pomegranate juice or concentrate (careful at the preservatives inside!)